


A Season of Firsts

by JetGirl1832, tomatopudding



Series: Family is Everything [3]
Category: Jersey Boys - Gaudio/Crewe/Brickman/Elice
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cute, Family Fluff, Gen, M/M, Parenthood, Swear jar, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, swear jar 1 Tommy 0
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 02:46:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8269735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetGirl1832/pseuds/JetGirl1832, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatopudding/pseuds/tomatopudding
Summary: With the continuing adventures of parenthood, Frankie and Bobby are faced with Francine's first day of second grade.





	

“Daddy,” Francine nudged Frankie, “Daddy wake up!”

Frankie slowly opened his eyes, “What is it Francine?” he murmured.

“First day of school!” Francine replied excitedly bouncing up and down, Frankie noted that she was already dressed and had her backpack on. He then glanced at the clock to see what time it was, she had gotten him up only a few minutes before his alarm was due to go off so he figured he might as well get up.

“Daddy, can you braid my hair?” Francine begged.

Frankie furrowed his brow, he had absolutely no idea how to do much of anything with hair, he could handle his own but that was about it.

“Please?” Francine pouted.

Frankie leaned over and tapped Bob on the shoulder to wake him, “Bobby.”

“What is it Frankie?” Bob grumble into his pillow.

“Can you braid hair?” Frankie asked.

Bob turned over to face Frankie, “Why would I know that?”

Frankie shrugged, “Francine wants her hair braided.”

“You’re a smart guy, I’m sure you can figure it out,” Bob replied before turning back over.

With a sigh Frankie followed Francine downstairs, in her hand she clutched a brush, a comb and a sparkly pink bag. She handed the items to Frankie and seated herself in one of the kitchen chairs. Frankie opened the bag to see a vast array of hair ties and rainbow colored plastic butterfly clips.

“Can you do a French braid?” Francine asked.

Frankie had no idea how to do a regular braid let alone what ever constituted a French braid. He stared helplessly at Francine's long curls trying to figure out what he was going to do. He had a vague idea that a braid had three parts to it but how those three parts worked together he had no clue.

Frankie exhaled and the first thing he tried to do was brush her hair, but approximately halfway through the first stroke he found the brush getting stuck. He tried to force it down and it still refused to budge. 

“Ouch, Daddy!” Francine complained.

“Sorry sweetie,” Frankie apologized feeling embarrassed. He set the brush back on the table and opted to use his fingers to create three somewhat even sections of hair. 

Now what… Frankie thought to himself. First he tried twisting the strands almost like a rope but they immediately came apart before he even had a chance to tie it off with one of the elastic bands. Frankie tried a few other ways each one failing more miserably than the last. He could hear Bob’s footsteps on the stairs and glanced at the clock on the wall.

“How is it going Mr. Sassoon?” Bob asked with a smile.

“It’s not,” Frankie frowned, “and I need to get dressed before I take Francine to school, so it's your turn.” He passed the brush and accessories off to Bob.

“But how-”

“You’re a smart guy, I’m sure you can figure it out,” Frankie echoed with a smirk, “Tommy doesn’t call you genius for nothing.”

After taking a quick shower and getting dressed Frankie returned downstairs to see Francine with two rather lopsided pigtails, “I give up,” Bob declared.

Frankie sighed and looked at the clock, it was too late for them to do anything about it now, “Alright Francine you ready for your first day of second grade?”

“Yes Daddy!” Francine nodded excitedly.

“Okay let’s go,” Frankie held out his hand for her to take and together they left the house.

\----------

Frankie placed what looked like it had once been an empty pickle jar in front of Tommy. It was now affixed with a sticker that said "Swear Jar". 

"What the hell is this?" Tommy scoffed.

"If you're gonna be coming around her with Francine you've gotta stop swearing so much," Frankie explained. 

"You've gotta be shittin' me," Tommy rolled his eyes. 

"Well at the rate you're going you already owe me ten cents," Frankie drummed his fingers against the table.

"How d'you figure that?"

Frankie turned the jar around and showed Tommy the larger sticker there.

It had various lines of text in Bob's careful handwriting showing things like "s-word=8¢," "h-word=2¢", and "f-word=$1"

"You're fucking nuts if you think I'm giving you a cent," Tommy folded his arms across his chest defiantly.

“Now you’re just doing it on purpose,” Frankie glowered.

“Bingo,” Tommy smirked.

"Please Tommy?" Frankie sighed, "I don't want her picking up language like that."

"She's gonna learn it somewhere," Tommy shrugged.

"Just because you were swearing like a sailor by the time you were in first grade doesn't mean my daughter needs to be," Frankie replied.

Tommy rolled his eyes, "I can't believe we are actually having a conversation like this."

"A lot has changed in the last few months, and I'm sorry that this is affecting you but I'm just trying to do right by Francine-"

“Yeah, yeah,” Tommy waved him off casually.

"I have no idea why but she loves you," Frankie informed Tommy.

"What can I say," Tommy shrugged, "the ladies find me irresistible."

"Tommy..." Frankie narrowed his gaze.

"My hand to God!" Tommy replied, "you know it's true."

"What about the girl who slapped you across the face at prom?" Frankie smiled.

“I didn’t like her anyway,” Tommy shrugged.

Frankie sighed and shook his head, Francine walked into the room clutching one of her school books. "Daddy?"

"What is it, sweetheart?" Frankie asked, his voice softening instantly as he crouched down to her level. 

"Can you help with spelling?"

"Sure thing honey," Frankie made room for Francine to sit at the table with them.

It was then that Tommy noticed Francine’s hair (which had basically gone to pieces at this point) and he frowned, “Alright which one of you two numbskulls did this to my Passerotta?"

“Bob did, I gave up,” Frankie confessed.

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus,” Bob glared at Frankie, he then turned to Tommy, “like you could do any better.”

“Amateurs,” Tommy rolled his eyes before motioning for Francine to sit beside him on the couch. He then removed the falling hair ties and smoothed out her hair before getting to work. “Don’t worry, Uncle Tommy will fix this.”

Tommy started at the top of her head with a small section of hair that he separated into three, he then laid the strands over each other each time gathering more hair from the sides and continuing down until all of her hair was encompassed in the braid. He then finished it off with an elastic tie and made sure it was snug.

Francine went to go have a look at her reflection in the mirror and was pleased with the results, “Wow!” she grinned before dashing back to Tommy to hug him, “Thanks Uncle Tommy.”

“And that, boys, is how it’s done,” Tommy smirked and folded his arms across his chest.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Bob looked at Tommy with confusion.

“I had four sisters,” Tommy replied, “you learn things.”

"Well who would've thought," Bob replied looking thoroughly stunned.


End file.
